Alex Lang, 2010 NSF Graduate Research Fellow
Alex Lang, a graduate student at Boston University, is paying it forward. On his personal website, AlexHunterLang.com, Alex has collected and posted many examples of winning essays written by him and other winners of the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship, to help others prepare their applications. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program provides graduate students in science and engineering a three-year fellowship including an annual stipend of $30,000 and an additional $10K for your university. The application requires three letters of reference, a personal statement, and 2-page essays on previous research and proposed research. Alex gave us some insider tips.
1. Why did you decide to apply for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship?
I did some physics research as an undergraduate and loved it. So, when I was applying to graduate school, I also applied for various fellowships so that I could start the research phase of graduate school as soon as possible. While I applied for several fellowships, my main goal was always the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program since it offers flexibility. An applicant needs to specify their research interests (which I was unsure of at the time), but after talking to a current graduate student, I learned that the NSF really funds a person, not a project. This came in handy for me, since my application was on Quantum Computing but now I do Biophysics research.
2. What do you think made your application stand out?
I had several different research experiences as an undergraduate. I was lucky that the research I was doing for my senior thesis was progressing well enough to have a paper submission at the time of applying. I also had a unique extracurricular activity. I had been Vice President of my hometown School Board, and one of the big issues while I was on the board was the changing of the math curriculum. That experience gave me plenty to write about in my essays.
3. What tips would you give others applying for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship?
Don’t be intimidated! The application can seem daunting since it involves three essays judged by “Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts.” Even today after applying and helping others apply, I can’t define what NSF means by those criteria. But, when I was applying, I found it really helpful to learn by example and I talked extensively with graduate students that had an NSF GRFP. I found it so helpful that it motivated me to put my essays on my website and try to collect as many other examples as I could find. So don’t be afraid to look and ask for help.
Alex Lang is a second year graduate student in Physics at Boston University and blogs on his experiences at alexhunterlang.com. He’s also getting married in May. Congrats Alex!
© Victoria Johnson 2012, all rights reserved.
In preparation for my upcoming seminar at MIT, I’ve gone back through my posts on science and engineering fellowships. Here’s a review of some of the best we’ve found.
Engineering:
- The Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowship is a competitive and prestigious fellowship for exceptionally talented doctoral students in the applied physical, biological and engineering sciences.
- The Amelia Earhart Fellowship is a $10,000 award for women of any nationality pursuing a doctoral degree in the field of aerospace-related sciences and aerospace-related engineering.
- The Hydro Fellowship Program is awarded to mechanical and electrical engineering graduate students in their final year of study who are interested in conducting research related to the improvement of conventional hydropower.
- The KPCB Engineering Fellows Program is a paid summer fellowship for entrepreneurial engineering students at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Science:
- Yale University offers 20-25 annual Gruber Science Fellowships for students of any nationality pursuing a PhD in biomedical and biological sciences or in astronomy and astrophysics.
- The L’Oreal USA Fellowships for Women in Science is a competitive fellowship program that provides five awards of up to $60,000 to women postdoctoral researchers who are pursuing careers in the life and physical/material sciences, as well as mathematics, engineering and computer science.
Tech:
- Code for America is a highly competitive professional fellowship program that recuits talented web developers, designers, and entrepreneurs to work on innovative tech projects in city government agencies across the U.S., including Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington, DC and Boston.
- The Google Policy Fellowship is a paid summer fellowship for undergraduate, graduate, and law students to spend 10 weeks in Washington, DC, San Francisco, Toronto or Ottawa, Canada at public interest organizations working on public policy in broadband access, content regulation, copyright and trademark reform, consumer privacy, and open government.
- The DHS Emerging Leaders in Cybersecurity is a paid professional fellowship program for computer science graduates; fellows complete rotational assignments at the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, DC.
We hope to see you at our Spring 2012 University Tour in Boston! Read here for details.
Great news for graduate students considering pursuing a doctoral degree in life sciences, including plant sciences, microbiology, biochemistry, immunology, genetics and other specialties. The Monsanto Company recently announced a $930,000 grant to Washington University in St. Louis for the establishment of a Monsanto graduate fellowship program that will fund seven years worth of fellowship opportunities.
The Monsanto graduate fellowships will be offered to two qualifying graduate students pursuing doctoral degrees in the Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (DBBS), and will include an award of up to $31,000. Monsanto fellows can receive up to three years of support, beginning after their second year of study.
IAC, a leading Internet company, and New York University (NYU) are launching a new IAC Teaching and Research Fellowship Fund in partnership with NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. IAC is providing $250,000 to support graduate fellowships for students from the School’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), a graduate education program in interactive media.
Four IAC Fellows, selected based on academic and entrepreneurial excellence, innovative research, and their potential to make an impact on the future of the interactive media space, have been awarded a one year fellowship to develop new technologies and research while providing faculty and student support within ITP’s classrooms. Their mentors include executives from Vimeo and IAC’s Hatch Labs, an innovation incubator devoted to improving wireless technology.
“Partnering with IAC in creating a Research Fellowship for recent graduates follows the example of many entrepreneurial ITP alumni, most notably Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley who spent a year after graduating incubating his ideas around locative media,” said ITP Founding Chair Red Burns. “Through this Fund, selected ITP students will now have a little extra time to deepen their skills and further explore their ideas in collaboration with the innovators at IAC.” Read more.
The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) Foundation is awarding a new EQUUS Foundation Research Fellowship to two researchers completing residency or graduate programs. Each will each receive a $5,000 tuition grant for their contributions to furthering equine veterinary knowledge through research.
“The equine veterinary community continues to struggle to find those dedicated to careers in equine research, especially veterinarians seeking advanced degrees,” said Wayne McIlwraith, AAEP Foundation Chairman. “We can’t thank the EQUUS Foundation enough for their dedication to education and responding to the important need of supporting those dedicating their careers to equine research.” Read the full press release.
The National Institute of Justice — the research, development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice — funds a series of fellowships for people studying criminal justice. NIJ’s Graduate Research Fellowship program provides PhD awards for doctoral research. NIJ also offers the W.E.B Du Bois Fellowship, worth up to $100,000, to provide talented young researchers with an opportunity to elevate independently generated research and ideas to the level of national discussion.
Speaking of the newest award winners, John Laub, Director of NIJ, stated:
“These award recipients are outstanding scholars, students, and researchers who contribute to critical and innovative thinking on crime and justice policy and practice. I look forward to the progress and results related to having these talented individuals working to further NIJ’s mission in criminal justice research.” Read more.
Successful Graduate Research Fellowship applicants must demonstrate a strong knowledge of quantitative and qualitative data analysis studies, so if you are considering applying, be sure to reach out to experienced researchers for help preparing your fellowship application.
The Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowship Award is an extremely prestigious fellowship reserved for exceptionally talented individuals studying in the applied physical, biological and engineering sciences leading to a PhD. The candidate selection process is rigorous and competitive. Each year more than 600 applicants compete for 15-20 fellowship awards. Hertz Fellows receive full tuition fellowships to more than 40 tenable schools along with a very generous stipend. Hertz Fellowships last as long as five years and are worth approximately $250,000.
More about the Hertz Foundation:
“In addition to financial support, the Foundation provides on going mentoring, symposia and a network of peers providing Fellows with a forum to share ideas and explore opportunities throughout their careers. The Foundation is developing ways for Hertz Fellows to communicate with their peers across generational and disciplinary lines, further enhancing their opportunities to gather information,form scientific networks and make contributions.” Learn more
In 2011, Princeton University seniors Cameron Myhrvold and Kay Ousterhout won the Hertz Graduate Fellowship and received $250,000 each in no-strings-attached research funding. Myhrvold plans to pursue graduate work either in the Systems Biology Ph.D. Program at Harvard University or the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Seattle native is not yet certain in which direction he will take his doctoral study, given his fascination for questions to do with the origins of life, evolution and synthetic biology. Ousterhout, a computer science major from Palo Alto, Calif., plans to use the fellowship funding to pursue research relating to the flow of data across the Internet by focusing on distributed systems and networking, areas of computer science that center on using multiple computers working together to process information. She has been accepted to several doctoral programs and is deciding which she will attend. Read more.